Joel Miles Porte (November 13, 1933 – June 1, 2006) was an American literary scholar, who was an internationally renowned authority on the life and work of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Attending the selective public Brooklyn Technical High School, Porte excelled not only in English but also in the science of industrial processes, mechanical drawing, and printing technology.
Porte enrolled at Cooper Union (1951–52) after graduating from high school and intended to pursue an engineering career, but left owing to lack of interest and of perceived ability.
Even though he now moved in the privileged milieu of Ivy League academia, he still remembered the ethnic and economic marginality he experienced in his youth, which disposed him to extend his generosity to others who "lacked 'natural' entitlement."
In Representative Man (1979) Porte brought this approach to its culmination, placing Emerson's imagination in fresh cultural and psychological contexts; the book was widely recognized as an enduring achievement.
Porte's critical editions of Emerson's works have been staples of college reading lists in the United States, but his influence spread much farther afield.